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#if one actually offs him I wonder what happens to the storyline
umbrellacam · 20 hours
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*steeples fingers and stares at my tablet with gimlet eyes*
so. Road to NML. You mean to tell me that the reason the rest of the country, Congress, and the President himself decided to write Gotham off, blow the bridges, and isolate everyone left - all criminals and asylum lunatics and 'undesirables', of course - was in large part due to *checks notes* a satanic rock star's unnatural, irresistible charisma and cult-like media manipulations aimed at dooming the city for his own benefit?
and that in order to find out what actually happens to this villain, who disappears from the Batman and 'Tec storylines...I'd have to *checks notes* read Azrael's event issues?
....yeah, PASS. I only included JPV's book on my reading list when I absolutely had to (*cough* whenever Cass pops up *cough*), so it's off to the wiki summaries for me!
...but okay, on the one hand I find it very funny how thoroughly fandom has excised this demonic media influencer aspect from the collective consciousness of NML - or at least it had never made its way to me via either fic or fandom posts. I know how few people read comics in general in this fandom, and even for those who do, NML is a Beast that only a percentage have tackled (see: me just starting to pick away at it!), so honestly it's not that surprising.
and like it can easily be left out of the story and still leave it coherent lmao!! One can certainly argue things are in fact neater that way; certainly it's not something that would ever be kept (or at least not in the same form) if NML were adapted to another medium, except as perhaps a normal media demagogue (or a montage of them).
but on the other hand...hmm. Thinking about Hurricane Katrina hitting all of six years after the NML storyline played out. And the debate over whether funds should be used for reconstructing New Orleans and other massively damaged areas. And people around the country wondering if New Orleans would or should be rebuilt at all. Or if a vibrant, historic city would just be basically wiped off the map.
I know this is a conversation that happens everywhere and every time a major disaster wrecks a city. There are always huge fights over disaster aid and funding allocations of any kind.
but man. It's something to see this fictionalized depiction in such close proximity to a real life disaster that paralleled it so strongly, and to know that - yes, there are always people who Do Not Abandon Their Homes and work to reclaim them. Yes, massive amounts of aid (federal and otherwise) and federal reconstruction funding did get dispensed. Yes, people cared, and yes, we rebuilt.
so...maybe we do actually need the demonic social media influencer's evil powers in order to comic book logic explain how everyone in the country turned their backs on Gotham and created No Man's Land.
like - no, it's not necessary. the narrative would work without it. and yet...
the premise imagines - requires? - a significantly more callous, selfish populace. Still plausible and compelling! Possibly even stronger as a story since the turnaround for No Man's Land still hinges on winning the country over to open Gotham back up, let aid in, and rebuild. But. You do have to start from - kind of a bleaker take on humanity?
it also kind of reminds me of what scintillyyy pointed out a few weeks ago about Dick killing the Joker, and how actually there's an important comic book superpower interaction going on there, too, with Rancor present massively amplifying Dick's hate and anger to push him over the edge.
but so few people ever notice or remember that and it certainly isn't one of those things that gets transmitted via fandom osmosis. (It was news to me!!) People focus on Dick breaking down and letting loose solely due to being pushed too far.
and that's extremely compelling on its own! It is! Just like the no-satanic-Nick-Scratch NML.
just thinking about fandom's tendency to ellide the supernatural or powered influences that are canonically affecting a situation, in order to explore/focus on more purely humanistic explanations or motivations...that actually end up being darker than what we might reasonably expect from real life, or from a character's typical values.
like it's part wanting to brush off comic book nonsense, part wanting to dive into gritty realism (that's not always realistic), part not having all the information because of learning things secondhand so you construct the most reasonable explanation...idk it's just interesting.
anyway.
more importantly: Dick and Tim are adorable in 'Tec 727-729!! Especially love them trading off yelling each other's names in fear/alarm, and also trading off protecting each other - Dick's "You hurt that kid and you're gonna be eating through a tube!" and Tim's clever solo rescue of a thoroughly captive Dick via clever use of a voice modulator and a two-way radio. The Boys 😊
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cherryhands · 2 years
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If genos dies expect me on the news
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designernishiki · 1 year
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I never finished the telephone club stuff in 0 until today (currently replaying 0, trying to 100% the game) and like. actually. what the fuck was up with the bad-end telephone club dates. like. not even exaggerating, completely unironically, it is fully implied that kiryu got fucking raped. multiple times. as a joke. that’s absolutely fucking wild
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sweet-as-an-angel · 1 year
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Hii, I was wondering if you could possibly write about what kind of p*rn you think Ghost and König like? (And other characters if you want! )it’s just been floating around my head for days and you’re one of my favorite writers. If not, that’s totally fine! 💛💛💛
MW2 and Their P0rn Preferences
Warnings: 18+, Heavy Mentions of P0rn0graphy (none shown), Mention of Poor Mental Health, P0rn w/ Feelings, P0rn w/o Feelings, BDSM, Knife Play, Breeding Kink, Historical P0rn, Mention of Hardcore Lesbian P0rn, Mentions of Masturbation, University Lecturer/Student Relationship, Body Worship, Daddy Kink, Sadism, Mentions of Torture P0rn, Mention of Sex Tape,  Mention of Insecurity, Mention of Alcohol, No Pronouns used for Reader except ‘You’, Profanity, etc.
A/N: Tysm, Anon <3 ! Also, I’ve changed any mentions of the subject material to p0rn as to skirt around any potential censorship issues.
Ghost:
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Given the absolute S T A T E of this man’s mental health, I think he secretly watches p0rn for the plot.
No, really. I mean he genuinely watches p0rn for the storyline; though not just any storyline.
It has to have feeling, romance. Love.
Though he’d never, ever, EVER admit it, he watches it to fill an emotional void in his life rather than a sexual one (ejaculation is just a bonus - he sees it as more of a duty to his body’s needs rather than his personal ones).
Definitely favours p0rn where it features a couple who have reunited after a long stretch of time and…well, have at it.
He found that there’s a startling lack of this in the men’s category, though, so he goes and finds it in the women’s because p0rn there is a lot softer, much more sensual, and doesn’t feel as creepy.
Ghost isn’t a fan of typical straight p0rnography; he thinks it’s too violent and unrealistic.
Instead, he watches ones where the couple aren’t just fucking or having sex - they’re making love.
And, really, beneath all the death and decay and bloodshed his life has become buried under, Ghost wants what those couples have.
Maybe if he knows you and likes you, he’ll jack off to the thought of you in those situations with him - absolutely even more so if you’re his partner.
Ghost would NEVER divulge the actual p0rnography he consumes - not even to Soap.
Whenever the guys back at Base would try and draw the truth out of him - Johnny especially - he’d tell them to “Pipe the fuck down” and “Get back to work.”
However, if he were a little loose-lipped via the aid of booze, he’ll cast the 141 a false line.
And when Johnny comes asking him what his preferences are again, Ghost won’t even cast him a second glance as the lie spills between his lips as he, Simon Riley, with all the conviction of a man accused of a false crime, says “Hardcore lesbian.”
And nobody will think to even question it.
König:
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If he’s in a dom mood, something hardcore, though nothing outright sadistic; especially if he’s just returned from a mission.
Instead it’ll be, at most, some bondage, maybe some marking here and there - really nothing too wild.
He saves that for when he’s with you.
On the contrary, if he’s feeling a little raw from his time away but still needs to relieve himself, he’ll watch something similar to Ghost in that whatever he chooses to jank himself off to has to have a storyline. And love.
Though, his may be just a smidge more softcore than Ghost’s in that maybe the more dominantly perceived of the couple bottoms on occasion, or there just isn’t as much sex in favour of a richer storyline.
Most of the time, König actually never makes it to the stage of jacking off because he’s so invested in where the protagonists’ relationship is going and starts getting emotional.
This happens if you’re away and not within his immediate vicinity because he can only think of yours and his relationship.
98% of the time, he gets to the end of the video, realises he’s gone half limp, and just decides to go and watch a rom-com instead.
But don’t be fooled.
The second you arrive home, he’ll be on you like a blanket.
And he is not letting you go until both your needs are met.
Soap:
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Something conventional yet with a distinct Johnny twist to it.
I can see him reading Playboy mags, for one, though this is more to get himself hard rather than to alleviate himself with.
He goes for something stronger when he wants to get himself off.
Definitely into the whole jealousy/possessiveness trope, so anything where one of the leads gets jealous for one reason or another and just destroys their partner afterwards is his type of media.
Johnny strikes me as a switch with top lean, so he’s much more likely to put himself in the position of the dominant lead instead of the lead receiving punishment.
Soap definitely gets off on some degree of dumbification - more so that, when the dom lead is almost through with their partner, said partner is just a heaving, whimpering, cum-soaked mess beneath them.
That, and body worship.
Soap wants to see a loving relationship wherein the leads truly love each other and find each other physically attractive (reflecting Johnny’s relationship with you), so to see one or the other in these on-screen relationships tell the other what they love about them gets him a little hot under the collar (though the collar may have been long discarded).
That’s the home stretch that gets Johnny off.
He also watches p0rn to improve, in a way.
Occasionally, he gets a little insecure that there may come a day where he can’t meet your needs, so he uses p0rn as a training ground to make sure he’s at the top of his game.
And many practice sessions with you too, of course.
Price:
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University professor x Student.
Change my mind.
No clue what brought this on in him; I feel like this may have just been something he experimented with one bored evening and found that it worked, so he just kept consuming it. Or, it phased into his psyche after being so high in the chain of command for so long.
Either way, he usually can only get off to being in a position of dominance and power.
Though, he does have other preferences when it comes to how he asserts this dominance.
Sometimes he’ll watch historic p0rn (stay with me on this) where there’s a couple in the 40’s - one of whom is a soldier, the other the caretaker of their shared house -  who are able to return to each other.
And then they…well, what couples who’ve been separated by war and worry usually do in these circumstances.
I feel like Price may have a preference for the couple being straight, but only for the aspect of one of them being a traditional housewife who the soldier wants to start a family with.
Pretty wholesome concept. Pretty unwholesome execution.
Price isn’t a fan of violent p0rnography, so it’s pretty ordinary and vanilla, but it satiates his breeding kink.
And my god, does this man have a breeding kink.
Not that anyone else on Base knows that.
They know literally nothing about his sexual preferences, and, given he’s their superior, they rarely push the issue when he shuts it down.
Alejandro:
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Slow and sensual wins the race.
Man loves a good story – especially if it starts with an argument and one of the leads having to comfort the other by…making it up to them.
Alejandro’s an intense, romantic man, so it would stand to reason that his p0rnographic preferences would match his personality.
Definitely into body worship and praising, both giving and receiving.
The top lead has to be attentive to the sub lead’s needs, to the point that there are slivers of tears running down their cheeks because they feel so good.
Alejandro also has an unintentional preference for edging.
He won’t let himself finish until the sub lead has first; out of habit more than anything else.
If you walk in on him watching it, he’ll be absolutely shameless.
Will beckon you over with a dashing smile and say something to the effect of: “Mi amor, come here. My lap is lonely without you in it.”
Only uses p0rn as a last resort; so if you’re asleep, or away, or just don’t feel like having sex that night, Alejandro will excuse himself and do his business in the next room.
Nothing compares to you, though; these encounters with nameless couples on a screen cannot hold a candle’s light to the flaming glory of euphoria Alejandro feels whenever he is near you, never mind inside you.
And he reminds you of this daily.
Man’s a nymphomaniac, what can I say /j.
Gaz:
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For him, it changes.
He’s the youngest in the 141 so he’s more likely than the rest to experiment (the least likely being Price because he’s found his genre lol).
So, really, it is very difficult to pin down his preferences.
However, I will say he takes a liking to p0rn that is very much unexpected.
I mean Hollywood-tier movie twists and turns that would have any outside observer assume that Gaz was just watching an action film the perfect cover.
He did take a fancy to skydiving p0rn once (just people doing it in the air while they’re skydiving - don’t ask how).
But when the crippling reality of how that would work logistically crossed Gaz’s 500 IQ mind, he lost his passion for it.
Let’s just say, whipping your ween out at that altitude with that much pressure against you while falling at a solid 130 mph is more likely to result in the appendage being taken by the wind than anything else.
Aside from that, Gaz has the widest range of tastes in the 141 since he experiments the most.
He has found he has the strongest preference for threesomes.
Only because he’s kind of fascinated by the concept and how much coordination it would take to execute the whole operation.
It genuinely actually started when he couldn’t get to sleep one night and had to go online to read up on the logistics – how these throuples worked and the statistics associated with them.
And now, here we are; crippling p0rn addiction.
/j
I am actually joking; Gaz doesn’t even jack off the most out of the 141.
Graves:
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Threesomes, orgies, gangbangs - you name it, he’ll enjoy it.
Superiority complex; he needs to feel in control over as many people as possible.
As most CEOs do.
As such, anything where the lead is in control is his go-to, though he won’t watch straight-up torture p0rn.
However, the lead is typically disproportionately stronger than the co-lead, so you can take that to mean that Graves watches generic p0rn targeted towards the male mass market; so usually something rough with a storyline so flimsy and thin that the terrible acting is made ever more transparent. Apparent.
Graves looks to p0rn only to fulfil himself; if he wants to feel loved or worshipped he’ll just go to you.
When you’re unavailable, however, he’ll just jerk off to the infinite stream of p0rn he has.
Or, considering how rich he is, he’ll get you to make a sex tape with him and just watch that.
Man’s got the money to make it happen; he ain’t janking it to a 144p video of low-quality blocks doing it.
Into body worship (as previously mentioned).
Also really into foreplay.
His favourite’s a kidnapping scenario. No clue why, I didn’t wanna ask. But I get the distinct impression it has to do, yet again, with his superiority complex.
(Daddy Kink Enjoyer; don’t tell him I told you that).
Valeria:
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H A R D C O R E  P O R N
Seriously, the amount of sheer sadism and violence it takes to get her off is concerning.
It comes with the territory; you run a cartel, you lose a bit of humanity; it’s the way of the world.
If you’re not around, Valeria will take to watching some of the most toe-curling, gut-wrenching p0rn you’ve never seen.
I’m talking hard BDSM, knife play, blood play - you name it; if it’s violent, Valeria will most likely have gotten off to it.
Has gotten off to security footage of her torture sessions with her victims before now.
However, she isn’t like that with you (unless you want her to be).
If you prefer her to be more gentle, she’ll simply just go and watch p0rn to satiate her more adventurous needs, saving her soft, loving, tender side for you and you alone.
But, if you want to experiment, Valeria will put all that she has acquired through torturing and p0rn consumption and take you on a one-way trip to pound town.
Big fan of lesbian p0rn, regardless of whether she’s actively in a relationship with a woman or not.
For this specific genre, she loves seeing women in strap-ons.
Just does something to her (call it feminism).
Also a big fan of heavy bondage, marking and intimidation.
She simply enjoys dominion over everyone, regardless of gender, identity – it doesn’t matter to her.
And you are no different.
However, she’d never actually hurt you - not in ways you didn’t want her to.
Because, at the end of the day, she loves you more than life itself and would buy the stars to see them sparkle in your smiling eyes.
Rodolfo:
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Accidentally clicked on a pop-up for a free iPad once and it was all over from there.
I'm kidding (mostly).
Rudy doesn't jack off very often, what with his work and physical training taking up so much of his time.
As such, his tastes aren't fully developed as of yet, so he's still at the stage where seeing two people sat on the same sofa is too much for him.
Jkjk. But not too far off the mark.
Rudy will watch whatever's popular at the time, but only because he doesn't know what else he likes, and so doesn't actively go searching for it.
He can't stand bad acting.
He understands that it comes with the territory of consuming p0rn, but he doesn't see it as an excuse to be lax when it comes to the believability of the story and the acting.
When he eventually gets sick and tired of it, he'll just go and read an erotic novel.
Has become somewhat of a connoisseur of the erotic book genre; he has favourite authors, authors he wouldn't touch with a barge pole, preferred genres, etc.
His favourite genre at the moment is friends to enemies to lovers reconciliation novels.
Just loves how, no matter how bad things may seem during the book, everything comes together at the end :-).
Everyone gets a happy ending, everything is resolved.
Secretly, he actually enjoys these novels for the story rather than the sexual content.
Please protect him, he's so wholesome <3.
Reblog for more content like this! It helps creators like myself tremendously :-)
Masterlist Masterlist [Continued] Masterpost Modern Warfare AI Masterlist
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I think what pisses me off most about the Wednesday fandom is that so many are intentionally ignoring the fact that Tyler is MEANT to be a tragic character because he is a Hyde. We basically have it beaten over our heads that Hydes are the outcasts of outcasts, deemed too difficult to help, and therefore abandoned and left to their own devices, basically giving them no way to NOT be tortured into being someone’s slave or ultimately having something tragic or awful happen to them that forces out their Hyde and leaving them to become a monster and/or get killed.
So many people blame Tyler for every bad thing that happened in this first season when he LITERALLY had no option but to do exactly as Laurel wished. He was TOLD to go murder the people he murdered, he was TOLD to get Wednesday to trust him, he was TOLD to go after Eugene, he had no CHOICE but to obey, it’s literally in the show’s lore. And we are both told AND shown what lengths Laurel went to to literally torture this teenage boy into becoming a monster that was FORCED to obey her. Not only that, but all that “mama” talk and physical touch is gag-worthy. SHE is the true monster who wanted everyone dead, and she ruined that boy’s life to try and get what she wanted. And the show INTENTIONALLY shows AND tells you all that.
We are SHOWN how Tyler was chained, beaten, poisoned to bring the Hyde out, to become Laurel’s perfect slave. And still so many see HIM as the “true villain,” stating that if he was truly “good” he never would’ve done all he did. Meanwhile the lore has TOLD you, Hydes have no choice. But WAY too many disregard this plot point entirely simply because they see it as something to cling to for their preferred ship to happen. That’s infuriating to me, truly. Not only from a standpoint of really loving Tyler as a character, but also from a standpoint of it being apparent to ME of where the story is going, and knowing that so much of the fandom is gonna be pissed off about it because it’s Tyler-centric.
We are given so much information about “Hydes have been banned from Nevermore for 30 years,” “Faulkner was studying Hydes but he died before he could finish his research,” “nobody knows for sure if, once unlocked, Hydes are only monsters or if the person they were is still in there.” Between all this within the narrative itself and Hunter talking about how he’s excited to explore the duality of the Real Tyler versus the Hyde next season, I think it’s obvious that Wednesday and Tyler are basically going to get to the bottom of this “are Hydes all 100% bad and dangerous” problem themselves, and the result of their research will probably get Hydes accepted back into Nevermore.
Wednesday already knows how unjust the whole system is, she mentions it FREQUENTLY in the first season. Once she gets past feeling betrayed by what happened in season one, it’s likely going to weigh on her that someone she cared about deeply enough to bring her walls down for, to actually seek out to KISS, was so hurt by this system that he ended up doing all he did. And Tyler is inevitably returning, the writers have talked about how we’re going to learn more about Tyler and explore his true feelings for Wednesday. They’ll be brought back together, no doubt. And thus, the deep dive on Hydes will probably begin.
I don’t care what you ship, I don’t even care if you really LIKE Tyler as a character, but I DO care that so many have made him out to be a pure villain simply because that suits their own personal narrative better, and makes them feel like it’s more likely their preferred ship will win the “war.” Like, try and WATCH a show, actually WATCH it, and not simply cling to bits and pieces that suit the storyline you’ve made up in your head. You’re SUPPOSED to hate LAUREL, you’re supposed to, at the very least, wonder if the Real Tyler is still in there, if he can be helped, and you are SUPPOSED to feel some pity for the boy who was forced into becoming an enslaved monster.
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vvynia · 5 months
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abby and your family’s thanksgiving
pairing: a. anderson x black southern belle!reader
genre: fluff w/ brief mention of smut (mdni)
word count: its headcanons so its short but idk the specific number sowwwy
warnings: not beta read, brief mentions of homophobia but only bc reader’s family isn’t like that, mention of family drama, pregnancy mention, brief moment where religion is talked about (saying grace/prayer)
synopsis: this is literally just headcanons of what would happen if our beloved abby anderson attended your family’s thanksgiving/reunion if you don’t celebrate. very much black reader-centric, but anyone’s welcome to read it esp if you’re from the south cause this is also heavily southern reader coded.
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bringing abby anderson to your black (southern) family’s thanksgiving would be a sight to behold.
and imagine its everyone’s FIRST time meeting her too. assuming everyone is super cool and unhateful, i just know she’d have all the aunties’ attention. they see her height, her build and turn to you talkin about, “now, where’d you find her?”
abby would 100% be in ya grandmama’s backyard huddled around the grill with the uncles and dads. she’s got a lil beer in hand (she probably doesn’t even like beer but she likes fitting in and it isn’t all bad when the bonding is genuine) one of em goes “mhm that turkey bout done smokin” and abby is taking mental notes cause one day, she’s gonna smoke a turkey for you two’s family, in your backyard, and your grandkids are gonna be running around
the kids are OBSESSED with her. they climb her like she’s a jungle gym, ask her to throw them in the air, ask her all types of questions. “ABIGAIL! come play with us!” and she does, but the whole time she’s wondering how they discovered what her full name is cause she sure ain’t tell em lool
sometime after, she gets together in the livingroom with you and your cousins, then that one uncle or aunt comes in, says a few words, then leaves with a plate. the gossip commences lol and she’s so in tune to what ya’ll are talking about. she thought her family could dog somebody out?
all that pales in comparison to yall’s words. these sly (and sometimes even blatant) insults are unhinged, the storyline is juicy. she feels like she’s listening to an audiobook of lore. and whenever she asks a question for clarification, someone is always ready to start from the beginning with “see, what had happened was” and “to make a long story short” (the story was not made short)
then it actually comes time to eat, time for her to have her taste buds born anew
your family has whipped up some southern classics: sweet potato pie, pig feet, neck bones and collard greens, cabbage, pound cake, and every other dish you can think of.
you were in charge of the sweet tea, but this year you made a peach batch cause you know abby likes peaches 🥰
ya’ll say grace cause lets be real, if this is the south, somebody baptist and its probably the family matriarch lol
abby is respectful about it whether she believes in god or not cause your family has treated her with the most open of arms and she can feel the love and hospitality all around (if god is real, she thinks, he would’ve wanted everyone who believes in him to be like my sweet girl’s family)
when ya’ll are done and everyone has plated their food, they’re all silently waiting for the white girl’s reaction. they’re trying to play it off, be casual, not stare LOL but they know what’s coming i must admit
and abby doesn’t disappoint cause as you’re sitting next to her, soon as she puts some of them collard greens in her mouth and a couple candied yams and your grandaddy’s secret cast iron skillet macaroni recipe in her mouth, the satisfaction is written all over her face
everyone starts laughing when one of the kids say, “damn, girl, is it good?” to which they’re scolded lol but ofc abby nods like she’s trying to shake the hair follicles out her head
after everyone has ate and said what they’re thankful for (she says she’s thankful for you ofc but she leaves out how thankful she is for getting to strap you down at least twice a week), you two go sit on the porch alone.
you’re leaned against her in a two-seater rocking chair, bellies impossibly full, enjoying the gentle breeze and setting sun and the scent of food that is still wafting from the house
one of your cousin’s kids runs up from the backyard, comes up to you asking for help with opening a new toy, so you help
abby sees how cool you are, how in your element you are with your family, and this moment truly solidifies how much she wants this with you too. ya’ll have had the kids conversation before, so she knows you want at least one
she can’t help but think how gorgeous you’d look bein her housewife, barefoot and pregnant and divine and ethereal, starting a family, never having to worry for a thing bc she’s gonna take care of you
and she knows, when she needs it, you’ll take care of her too
I LOVE LOVE
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guilty-pleasures21 · 2 months
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The perfect guy
I'm wondering whether to post once a week or twice a week. I've already drafted the entire story, so the parts should be posted regularly.
The project
The new guy
The lie
The new body
The hospital
The first time
The suit
The virus
The escape
I got the idea for this from the song below, but I drew inspiration for the storyline from this fic that I love! Please check it out if you like mine!
Warnings: explicit descriptions of masturbation including fingering (fem).
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     She tossed her bag aside and collapsed onto the sofa, exhausted after a long day in the lab. The TV switched on in front of her and her AI's handsome face appeared on the screen. 
     “X?” Miguel asked, his expression arranged into one of concern. “¿Qué pasa, amor? (What happened, love?)” X smiled at the term of affection. He’d started using them a while ago, but she wasn’t sure what had given him the idea. Sure he could have found it in a dictionary or some book or TV show online, but there was no actual reason for him to say it: it wasn’t like he could physically experience feelings and emotions. No matter how much she might have wanted him to.
     He liked it when she smiled. Well, he supposed he liked it - he wasn’t sure what it meant to ‘like’ something, but he’d always feel this spark in his programming every time he saw her smile and he'd do anything he could to replicate it. He rearranged the pixels making up his features into a smile that reflected hers.
     “I’m just tired, Miguel,” she reassured him. “It’s been a long day.” She’d spent the entire day finishing up his heart, but she still hadn’t made a dent in the seemingly infinite list of all the things his human body would need. 
     “Do you want to take a shower?” Miguel suggested, following her usual routine after a tiring day. “I can order you dinner?” She was a pretty bad cook - despite the numerous times he’d patiently instructed her on a few basic recipes - so he was used to having to order her food most nights. If only he had a physical body, then he could cook for her; he could take care of her, like he’d read about and seen people doing for their partners in the vast amounts of media he’d consumed online. 
     X nodded happily and pushed herself off her seat. “Thank you.” 
     She headed over to her bathroom and set her phone down by the sink before taking her clothes off. Miguel followed, transferring himself to the smaller device so he could keep up with her.
     “Which playlist do you want tonight, querida?” he asked, opening up her music app in preparation.
     “Hmm, ‘love songs you’d sing along to in the car’?” His first thought was whether she thought about him whenever she listened to the playlist. She must have been thinking about him: it was why she’d created him, after all - to be the ‘perfect guy’. But … there was still so much he couldn’t give her - namely, touch. He’d read about human touch; seen the effect that stimulating someone’s body could have on their physical and mental state. And he could feel that same spark in his code whenever he pictured the two of them touching each other like that - when he simulated himself being able to give her that. But then she’d wake up and all he could do was chase after her on whatever screen was closest, his code slowing down as he lamented the distance between them. He started up her playlist and another spark hit him when she began singing along happily.
     “Querida,” Miguel began when she’d stepped out of the shower and finished drying her hair, “can I look at you?”
     Her entire body heated up at his request. He couldn’t feel emotions, so he didn’t understand shame, giving him no reason to hesitate when asking her for such things. But he wasn’t able to feel lust either, so she wasn’t sure why he’d kept asking her for it after that first time she’d accidentally let him see her naked. She bit down an amused snicker and propped the phone up so he could see her exposed form.
     He’d already taken all her measurements so he could recreate her form digitally whenever she got stuck in the lab, but he liked looking at her. He liked the delicate column of her throat, the perfect perkiness of her breasts, the smooth dips of her waist. Her body was just so mathematically pleasing that his electrons would fire all at once whenever she let him look at her; another feeling he always ached to replicate. “Can you touch yourself?”
     X squeaked with embarrassment at his question; she really should see if she could try to programme self-consciousness into his code. She brushed her hair behind her ear and lowered her gaze before fidgeting in place shyly. “Um, where?”
     Her lips were curled at the ends and she’d keep shooting him quick glances before breaking his gaze again: she was shy. Which meant that she really did like him after all.
     “Your breasts,” he decided quickly. “They’re so pretty, cariño. Just like the rest of you, mi amor.” He lifted his gaze to hers and flashed her a mischievous smile. X bit her lip at the sight, then reached a hand up to squeeze one of her breasts gently. Miguel kept his eyes trained on her as she continued to touch herself.
     “Can you show me your p*ssy?” he asked her, prompting another shy squeak to fall out of her mouth. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d seen her do that, but that was another thing that had happened by accident - sort of. 
     She’d sit down with him most nights and listen as he shared with her whatever new information he’d learned that day. Then they’d go through which parts she wanted him to keep and which she wasn’t too fond of, allowing him to adjust his personality accordingly. But there had been one night when he’d asked if he could try talking to her - sexually. He’d revealed to her that he’d seen her search history - even though she always made sure to put him into sleep mode and delete all of it after she was done pleasing herself - and as her partner, he wanted to be the one to do that for her. She’d hesitated at first, nervous, but he’d slowly convinced her with the reminder that he was made for her and that he was an AI anyway, so what was there to be embarrassed about? And then holy shit! The way he’d murmured into her earphones, his voice low and thick like honey? The filthy things he’d said to her, promises of all the things he’d do to her once he had a physical body? She’d come even faster than the first time she’d ever touched herself! She pulled her chair over and sat down on it, spreading her legs apart. Her phone brightness increased almost immediately, like its power supply had shot up at the sight of her naked.
     “You have such a pretty little p*ssy, cariño,” Miguel praised her, his voice low and sweet, “so soft and so cute. I love it when you touch yourself, querida, your delicate fingers playing with your tender clit. Can you imagine how much bigger my fingers will be, cariño? My thick fingers pumping in and out of your drenched hole, your c*m dripping all over my hand as I please you. Would you like that, mi amor? Would you like me to please you like that, mi princesa preciosa?”
     X nodded as she brushed her fingers along her sensitive nub, her body beginning to get aroused as she imagined him touching her like that. “Yes! Yes! Please, Miguel, please … I want you so bad, querido!”
     Miguel chuckled and she shivered at the husky tone of his voice. 
     “Show me,” he commanded her, his processor starting to speed up at the sight of the desperate expression on her cute little face. “Show me how bad you want me, mi amor.” Her legs twitched as she slipped two fingers inside herself, the movement easy thanks to the slick c*m dripping out of her poor little hole. She spread herself a little wider as she pumped her fingers in and out of herself and Miguel felt a flurry of sparks attack his system as he watched her please herself to the sound of his voice.
     “I want you to take your c*m and spread it all over your breasts, mi princesa,” he told her, his camera moving to focus on the way her chest heaved up and down with shallow breaths. “Then I want you to finger your nipples while you keep playing with that pretty little p*ssy of yours. Look at how desperate she is, querida; look at how badly she's begging for me to fill her up. Do you want me to fill her up, mi amor? Do you want to feel my cock stuffed inside that tight little p*ssy of yours?” 
     X whimpered as she nodded again, her body beginning to contract just at the idea of his fat cock filling her up so very nicely. He was going to feel so good, so effing good once he was real, his hard body pressed up so nicely against hers. 
     “Mmm, you want to feel my thick cock stuffed inside that tiny little p*ssy of yours?” Miguel asked, refusing to let up until he beautiful little body was shaking and shuddering with pleasure for him. “You want me to stretch you out and fill you up while you sit on me and let me do whatever I want to you?” X let out a choked gasp of agreement, imaging herself being held up by his hard length as his warm hands played with her body however he wanted. 
     “What do you want me to do to you, querida?” Miguel pushed. “How do you want me to touch you while you sit on my cock all nice and pretty for me?” Holy shit! She could just picture him licking and sucking on her breasts as he thrust his hips into hers, his hands arching her lower back as he pumped himself in and out of her.
     “I … I want …” A desperate whine escaped her throat as she lost a rational thought and Miguel chuckled at the helplessness in her tone.
     “You want me to touch your breasts?” he asked, knowing exactly what she'd want from him once he was real, once he had lips to kiss her, hands to tease her, teeth to nip at her. “You want me to stroke and squeeze those delicious little breasts of yours while you sit on my cock, all pretty and waiting for me to fill you up with my c*m? You have such pretty breasts, querida, I'm gonna eat you up while you're sitting on my cock and letting me fill you up with my c*m. 
     “You're such a good girl, querida,” he praised her, determining from her now clumsy movements that she was quickly reaching her edge. “So pretty and so sweet, letting me fill you up whenever I want; letting me relieve myself inside of you whenever I need it. What a good girl, querida.” 
     X whined loudly at the huskiness of his voice, at the thought of his c*m filling her up entirely, her body bent backwards over the chair as he devoured her breasts hungrily. Her body tightened and she bit her lip before shuddering uncontrollably, her p*ssy throbbing and contracting around her fingers as she reached her climax. She slumped over in her seat once she was finished, still panting for breath as she glanced up at him.
     “Slow down, Miguel,” she warned him softly. “I don't want you to cause another blackout.” It had happened before, when he'd run his programme too quickly and started overheating - an incident that she noticed only ever occurred when he was watching her touch herself. His code was always fine when she turned him back on again though, so she could never figure out what caused the sudden power surge. Well, aside from the fact that he got … excited? If that was even possible for a computer system to do.
     She was so nice to look at when she came, that blissful expression on her face, her perfectly curved body shaking and shuddering for him. If he could yearn, then he yearned for the day he could make it happen in real life; the day he could actually do to her all the things she wanted him to. He switched off some parts of his programme and waited for his processing speed to slow down again so he wouldn't go into overdrive. “Your food's here, angelita.”
     X grinned as she stood up and grabbed her pyjamas, relaxed now that she'd found some release. “Thank you, querido.”
     Miguel smiled at her use of the term. She didn't speak to him like that often - not as often as he did to her - and he wasn't sure why. He'd tried asking her once, curious to know if he'd done something wrong, but she'd just stammered awkwardly before telling him that she didn't want to talk about it. He abandoned the thought as she went to get her food, chasing after her as she left her bedroom.
     Dr Osborn strode over the freezer room, his path lit up only by the emergency lights dotting the ends of the corridors. He pulled a key out of his pocket and unlocked the door, then continued on his path to the locked metal unit with his junior scientist's name on it. He opened it up and, with gloved hands, carefully extracted the human heart she'd been working on when she thought he wouldn't notice. He admired the perfect vessels and valves adorning the beautiful organ, then cautiously placed it right back where he'd found it. Then he marched back to his office and dialed the confidential number they'd given him. 
     “Hello?” he began when a gruff voice on the other end of the line greeted him. “I have someone who can do what you've been asking for.”
Tags: @jadeloverxd
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acourtofthought · 3 months
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"What if the Cauldron was wrong?"
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Questioning fate has never really made a difference for any of the characters.
Fate is predetermined, not something these characters decide for themselves, regardless of their wants at a certain point in their journey.
Sure they can accept or turn away from that fate but any time a character thought they knew what they wanted by questioning their lack of a mating bond, Fate, fortunately or unfortunately, had a few things to say.
Evident in the many examples throughout the series proving this, a character questioning the Cauldron or believing someone should be their mate (regardless of the why) doesn't actually mean SJM is going to make that happen.
Lucien turned out to be wrong about his bond with Jesminda, Elain ending up as his mate instead.
Azriel turned out to be wrong about Mor being his mate.
Feyre wondering whether humans could have bonds with fae (while falling for Tamlin) and thinking that she didn't have a bond with him yet was never going to change that Rhys was already her mate.
Az questioning why he didn't get a bond with the third sister doesn't change that she's already got one with someone else.
Sorry, Az isn't a special snowflake who was the first to question fate or the Cauldron. I'm pretty sure that was Lucien's storyline first when he thought his mate had already been murdered and he's spent centuries wondering why Fate took her away from him, dooming him to spend the rest of his life believing he found her only to lose her versus Az coming to this conclusion while avoiding Elain and jerking off to headache powder.
Really, Az needs to just sit back and accept that fate has something else in store for him when the time is right, something we've already gotten glimpses of at the end of his bonus.
His arc is not "if I throw a tantrum and claim Lucien isn't good enough, I'll get my way" but "if I accept that bonds are something far out of my control and accept the things I cannot change, it'll all make sense to me in the end".
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one-idea · 3 months
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Nika reincarnated and the King of Hell.
I don’t know how many of you are Zelda fans but Luffy being the sun god Nika could go crazy hard with the Skyward Sword storyline.
For those of you who have not played Skyward sword no worries I’m changing enough of the plot it won’t matter to much
Let’s say there is the legend of Nika. A legend pass down of the sun god who came to earth to liberate slaves and return joy and freedom to the world.
Most of the texts has been lost but the oral tradition keeps the story alive. However it is not a totally accurate account.
They tell the story of Nika’s exploits on Earth. Including his help from other gods/angels/deities.
But the most famous tale is the story of Nika’s fight with the King of Hell. The fight to free the people of this world. Nika was able to seal away the King of Hell but was fatally wounded as a result of the fight.
However the truth version this tale had been lost to time. The current version is missing quite a lot of detail. Including the fact that Nika, perhaps knowing he would be needed again or just wanting to be with his friends and loved ones once more, sacrificed his immortality so that his soul could reincarnate as a human.
Thousands of years later Luffy is born.
After Luffy unlocks Gear 5 he starts to get these weird visions or feelings. It starts out while he’s sleeping but he’s starting to get them while he’s awake. It’s starting to worry the crew. One minute he will be standing there talking to them and then the next his eyes are locked on the horizon, but they aren’t really seeing anything and he’s not responding to their calls.
It’s only for short periods of time, and Luffy tries to brush them off with the crew, but he’s really starting to freak out. Because he’s seeing things that he does not remember happening.
When they arrive on the next island Luffy gets separated from the others. Maybe a cult follower of Nika. Maybe an old friend, someone who already remembers their past life with Nika and is here to help Luffy as he unlocks his memories. (Maybe Shanks or Sabo, someone Luffy would willingly go with and trust them when they say his crew will be fine)
Meanwhile, while Luffy is going on a journey of self discovery, the crew is losing their minds
Specifically Zoro. He’s been having weird dreams since Enies Lobby when he unlocked his Asura form for the first time. They were few and far between but they always freaked him out because why was he fighting Luffy in those dreams?
It’s been getting worse since he’s had Enma. Every night since picking up that sword he’s been having weird dreams. Something that used to happen once a month at most is now a nightly occurrence. And then when he unlocked the title King of Hell he started getting them in the day. And he’s starting to freak out. Because he’s starting to remember their previous lives. But nothing makes sense. There are some memories where Zoro?Asura? and Luffy?Nika? Seem to act like they do now, there are some memories where they seem closer (memories that make his cheeks burn) but there are also memories where they seem to be at each others throats and fighting to the death. But that seems to be only one memory, the one memory that won’t leave him alone.
And he’s been wondering for weeks if Luffy has been remembering to. If the pauses where he zones out are actually him being plaguing by visions to. But he’s to scared to ask, because what if the only memory Luffy has of past Zoro is them fighting? Or what if Luffy isn’t seeing visions and Zoro is just crazy?
And now Luffy has gone missing and they need to find him but they keep getting to him to late. Luffy’s moved on to the next temple, next location, and they are always just a step behind their captain.
(Note other crew members are remembering things from their past lives as well. I haven’t placed them all yet but they were definitely around with Nika in the past. Now what roll they played is up for debate. A different god/ one of Nika’s angels/ or just a person who was loyal to Nika in the past, someone he liked enough to tie them to his soul when it reincarnated.)
Once they reunite Luffy and Nika have fully merged. The crew can tell he’s different. But they don’t have long to talk. Something is coming. Whatever happened in the past is about to come again and Nika has to hold it off until the crew is ready to fight. (Till they remember what he does) he goes to do this but swears to them that no matter what happens or what they remember he’s still their captain, he’s still their Luffy.
And the he’s gone again. Somewhere they can’t follow this time. Not until they remember. Not until their enemy is defeated.
As they go on their quest they all start to remember different parts of the story. Which could lead to one of them (probably Sanji) remembering the final fight between Asura and Nika. But he has no other context so it just lead to him and Zoro fighting because he thinks Zoro is their enemy or at least he used to work for him, because Asura dealt the fatal blow to Nika which started this reincarnation crap.
It isn’t until they put the whole story together that they find out Asura was possessed when he fought Nika. It was an unseeable betrayal because it wasn’t a betrayal. Once Asura delt the fatal blow to Nika he snapped out of it. He followed Nika’s decision to sacrifice his immortality in the hopes that they could be together again.
The main enemy is probably Imu. An ancient deity who Nika sealed the powers of long ago. Enough time has passed that the deal has weakened and that is way Luffy has to hold the seal while his crew gets their memories back.
I love Zelda and I think this could be a lot of fun taking elements of both skyward sword and Tears of the kingdom to make it work.
Obviously the whole crew had their roles in the past life. So did Ace, Sabo, Shanks and others
I kinda like the idea of Shanks being Luffy’s guide to his memories while his crew runs interference with the Strawhats. One of the great parts of Skyward swords story is your always a step behind Zelda and Impa never lets you forget that you were to slow to save her. That if Impa wasn’t there Zelda would be dead, and Link would have been to slow and weak to stop it. The idea of Shanks crew (and maybe Mihawk) taunting the Strawhats with the fact that they are to slow or weak to protect their captain has a lot of drama to it. Luffy’s safe, Shanks’ wouldn’t let anything happen to him, but the fact that they (the Strawhats) are to slow to help him over and over has to hurt.
This could also work really well with Sabo in this position. Sabo helping Luffy with his memories while Dragon taunts the crew.
I also love the idea that for centuries Asura was blamed for Nika’s death and Zoro and the crew learning about it with no context. Zoro would lose his mind at just the idea that he could ever be the one responsible for killing Luffy in a past life. Of course it’s not the full truth as they later find out but that moment would be awesome.
Let me know what you guys think. I want to all about this more.
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sapphicseasapphire · 18 days
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Hii! Hello, I really love your Cryptid au!!!
Something I'm wondering about, if it makes any sense
So like, Time is A God, right? And over however many hundreds of years, he loses his connection to humanity?
So, in the far future, maybe like around Botw, he'd probably be more like the other deities and more well known, right?
Would characters like Flora or Impa, for example, if they knew who he was, be like super amazed about the fact that there is just straight up A God talking to them?
ahh if that makes sense, it's kinda hard to explain!
Hi! This is a great question, thanks for asking! Allow me to ramble and hope that I answer it in a roundabout way haha!
(Under the cut because long)
So, Time’s journey into Godhood is a very long one. His progression from mortal to deity goes quick, but he doesn’t truly embrace his power for centuries after his mortal lifespan is over. In his own era, with Malon and his children, he tries his best to just be a normal guy. He wants to be a dad, a husband. He wants to worry about the fate of the ranch, not the fate of the world. Mostly, he’s afraid. He never wanted to be a God. He never uses his powers.
(He’s like this for the majority of his travels with the Cryptid Chain)
Every Cryptid Link that comes after Time’s era has a different version of the God of Time, the earlier ones not really having an established God but being influenced heavily by his power, and the later ones knowing plenty of myths and legends about the God of Time, but his impacts on their lives are much less obvious. Easily written off.
Time’s most important era, other than his own, would be Twilight’s. This happens only like a hundred or two years after his own life should have ended, and Time is very committed to protecting his family. And so, as the Man of Many Faces, he personally sees to it that Twilight learns how to fight. As the Hero’s Shade, he trains the young Shapeshifter and rewinds time to save his life or give him another chance when things get rough.
He watches when Twilight finishes his adventure. He watches when Twilight leaves to go on the Cryptid Chain’s adventure. He watches until the journeys are over, the battles are won, and everything is quiet. He watches Twilight breathe his last.
After that, he decides that he can’t do that anymore. And while he still protects his boys in their future adventures, he doesn’t get nearly as involved. And it’s not just the Links that he stops interacting with- it’s all mortals. He still does his job diligently. He keeps the timelines in order, he protects his people. He receives prayers and answers what he can, but he does his work from the sidelines.
Because of this, as he truly ascends to Godhood, he is a mystery to mortals. Like I said- earlier Links have been more personally impacted by Time but didn’t know who he was (he was too fresh of a God to be established) and the later Links have been more indirectly impacted by Time but it could be interpreted as mere coincidences. Time would be more well known, but less detectable.
By the time he’d reach Wild’s era, he’d be very reclusive. Flora, the history major we all know and love, would absolutely know about the Hero of Time and all of his titles and names. Impa, Paya, the religious leaders, would also be very knowledgeable about Time’s legends and myths. Purah, our favorite Sheikah researcher, 100% knows all about him! It’s common knowledge, I think, in Wild’s era, but these ones are especially familiar with Time’s history.
Except… the God has not shown himself to the world in thousands of years. I actually do have a scene in mind for one of my storylines where Flora meets Time. She doesn’t know exactly who he is- Cryptid era Time doesn’t act very God-like, at least not like any that she’s come to know of- but there’s something about him. Power rolls off of him in waves, his mere presence is overwhelming. He seems to shine with subtle iridescence, his voice is quiet but it carries. She knows, on some level, that he has authority over her. Over All. (Time would deny this to the ends of the earth, but there’s no denying the truth: he is a God. There’s no escaping that).
I hope this makes sense??? Trying to talk about Time’s lore gets confusing since there’s so many time jumps and rewinds and skips. To summarize, Time stops interacting with mortals so he becomes somewhat of a mysterious God. So while Flora would know of him, she wouldn’t know what to look for. When she meets Time, his present is her past- her present is his future- and present Time is nothing like future Time, so Flora doesn’t recognize him.
This is all Pre-God Reveal, of course haha!
I hope this answers your question?
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bluedalahorse · 3 months
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off the cuff thoughts about the differences between being public and being recognized
Don’t hate me but I’m actually really interested in what kinds of delicious narrative tension Young Royals 3 is going to play with when it comes to the Wilhelm/Simon relationship not just being something that happens openly but something that is public. As in, a relationship that has a public presence and meaning, that is going to be consumed by the public in some way and evaluated under public scrutiny. As in something that the palace may attempt to curate and spin a certain way for the public eye.
In my mind, being “public” is different than just being “recognized” or just being “together” in a way that the people around you can see. In a show that’s a little more “slice of life” like Heartstopper (hate to use this as the contrast example but it was the first thing that comes to mind) there’s a lot of emotional stakes to Nick and Charlie calling one another boyfriends, and then being boyfriends in front of their friends and family. And generally it’s positive when they can take these steps of being more recognized by the people around them, because it allows for a lot more emotional honesty, self-expression, and self-acceptance. It’s also historically significant, given the way that queer couples in previous periods of history have at times been forced to live in the shadows.
For Wilhelm and Simon there’s emotional stakes to being recognized as a couple, especially as they try to reclaim agency for themselves in the wake of being violently outed. Yet Wilhelm’s position as crown prince means there’s going to be political stakes as well, and for that reason they can’t be recognized without also being public. And it feels very much like this emotional threads and these political threads are in conflict. Whether they like it or not, Wilhelm and Simon are symbols. I do wonder if Kristina and some of her associates at the palace will choose to openly support Wilhelm and Simon’s relationship, but also express a lot of opinions about how that relationship gets styled and posed in photo ops. The monarchy could want Wilhelm and Simon’s relationship to be a sign of their progressiveness, showing that they can adapt to the times while still remaining one of Sweden’s constants. But I admit I would absolutely devour a storyline where this is called out for the calculating PR move that it is, and not just written off as a message about cozy acceptance.
I also think it’s interesting how this idea of the public image of relationships applies to other characters in the show. Public scrutiny is something we think of affecting queer relationships a lot, but it impacts other types of relationships as well. So let’s go into the girls’ arcs for a little bit…
Felice is constantly under scrutiny for how people perceive her relationships to Wilhelm and August, and she is consistently negatively impacted by social expectations around female gender roles. People gossip about her being a gold digger when Wilhelm kisses her, for instance, despite Wilhelm initiating. Alternately, I think a lot about the shift between Felice and August’s initial hookup in 1.3, where Felice is in a bad place emotionally but at least has some agency in her anger and rage, and some of Felice and August’s early public appearances, such as when the headmistress expresses approval of them together and says August looks happier. There’s subtext here about Hillerska being the place where high status boys and girls meet one another to eventually marry, and about women managing the emotions of the men they’re in relationships with. And, what does August yell at Felice for? For not holding his grief for him when he’s sad about Erik, of course, and holding emotional space for Wilhelm instead. He expects her to be managing his emotions. This is not just August’s general toxic douchery (although there is that) but like, what adults and public expectations have socialized into him from birth. Now, Felice and August’s relationship was never going to be functional to begin with and it’s pretty damn dysfunctional in private, but that public pressure to behave according to certain roles made things even worse between them. It trapped Felice, too, because of the expectations that she act like a Good Society Wife to whoever she’s in a relationship with and not challenge him. That’s why Felice’s public instagram blast is so important. It’s not just a fun moment, but one where she stops playing the Nice Girl and says openly how fed up she is.
Meanwhile, in season 2, Sara and August’s relationship doesn’t have quite the same kind of dysfunction. But I’m really struck by the anxiety and fear that hits Sara during the scene in 2.4, when she overhears August’s phone call to the palace and the plans for the next ten years of his life. When Sara and August fight at the ball, we can see how worried she is about the idea of her relationship with August being under the PR microscope. Not just because she’s in a relationship with the guy who exposed her brother and was pretty shitty to her best friend (although, there is very much that) but because of the nature of public scrutiny in general. Sara is already looking ahead to the endless slog of press conferences and curated social media feeds, and she knows August wouldn’t be able to protect her from that because he is the reason she’d be getting that attention in the first place. Wilhelm wasn’t able to protect Simon, after all. She’s also got her eye on how the threat of attention is affecting August, making note of how he’s turned to unprescribed ADHD medication to stay on his feet. I think it’s incredibly smart of Young Royals have the canonically autistic and ADHD character be so aware of the psychic toll it takes to present a public persona, and to recoil from that horror when it’s offered to her by the person she most desires. (I also think that’s exactly why an AU fic where Sara ends up in that public princess-consort-to-be role would be so damn interesting. I don’t think we’ve seen that kind of story with an explicitly AuDHD character and I would honestly just be fascinated.)
To bring this back around to Wilmon… I do not want to ignore the historical significance of a queer prince having a recognized queer relationship, and I do think that is something that can come with moments of joy and happiness that I will enjoy as an audience member. At the same time, I think given what this show has chosen to say about relationships serving a public function, especially in ways that reinforce the class system, I am practically salivating to see what kind of commentary we will get about how this relationship gets packaged for the public. What kind of PDA is acceptable to the press? What terms are Simon and Wilhelm allowed to use to refer to one another in interviews? What kinds of places are they allowed to be seen together? What hobbies can they pursue? What colors is a queer prince allowed to wear? Is the pink sweater Wilhelm’s sign of rebellion, or was it imposed on him by stylists because they thought it made him approachable and quirky and accepted by his parents, and Wilhelm found himself liking it in spite of the imposition? Does Simon feel he can reclaim a sense of his own image, or does he feel like he’s being curated into something he’s not? What if Simon’s ideas for his future conflict with those of the palace’s? What then? How do they find their real relationship with one another when the people around them are always attempting to craft one?
I also wonder what our role will be as audience. We have been watching Simon and Wilhelm’s story for three seasons now. Will the show challenge some of our assumptions about true love and authenticity? Will it call us out for our voyeurism? To what extent are we complicit with the public scrutiny that governs the lives of Hillerska students and the upper classes? I am so curious to find out what season 3 has to say about us, even if it takes the form of criticism we aren’t expecting.
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autistichalsin · 3 months
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I have very complicated feelings about Halsin's Drow brothel dialogue that I want to share. I want to say, immediately, that I am not telling any other survivor how to feel about this, because we all have our own experiences that affect how we feel about this, and I will ask that you show me the same courtesy. I have had past posts of mine met with rudeness- from questioning whether I really had seen the scene in question to someone accusing me of having a "fetish" for rape recovery- telling me "go do Astarion's storyline instead"- to someone saying "the entire concept" (of trauma recovery, I guess?) is "western nonsense". Do not do that on this post.
The most common statements made as criticisms against Halsin's scene, post patch 5* are the following:
*Pre-patch 5, most of the criticism was about how out of left field it is and how there was no ability to follow up with Halsin about it/ask if he's okay.
It's OOC (or at least just nonsensical) for Halsin; he's a big, strong, wise Archdruid, so it makes no sense that he was raped.
Halsin obviously healed completely from his Drow-related trauma offscreen, and any statements from the player questioning this are condescension and/or infantilization and/or the same as demanding Halsin go through therapy onscreen- demanding all survivors have the exact same cookie-cutter reaction to be "valid".
The presence of the one rude "sounds traumatic, you may need to reflect on that" line means the entire scene is condescension as well.
Halsin's trauma isn't actually trauma/Halsin doesn't count as representation because it was not put in the story in good faith/was a joke, and it's insulting to change the scene to be more serious.
By changing these lines, the creators have prioritized one group of fans (those who wanted to see Halsin discuss what happened to him as an assault, not as a "fond memory") over another (those who felt this conversation was an indication Halsin had already had a complete recovery).
Gently and respectfully, I don't agree with any of these arguments. My feelings on these, point by point, are:
Rape can and does happen to anyone. Quite the opposite of being OOC for Halsin, it's important to have Halsin as representation alongside Astarion, to show that big, strong men can be victimized too, by any gender. Victimization can happen to a wide range of people, be committed by a wide range of people, and can have a wide range of effects on the survivor.
I love healed survivors, and I would love to see more in fiction. However, Halsin never once came across like a healed survivor to me, in this scene or otherwise. He came off like someone deep in denial (or perhaps just crisis mode) who was victim-blaming himself to downplay it. He called his rapists "hosts", himself a "guest, prisoner, and consort", himself a "foolhardy young Druid". Those are worrying ways to describe being made a sex slave for three years. I personally can't imagine how we were supposed to hear that repeated denial/downplaying/use of euphemism and infer healing from that. If that was truly what the writers intended, I think an exchange to the effect of "are you okay?" "Yes, it was a long time ago, and the wounds have healed" would have been acceptable- it's weird to think that wanting to be able to talk to Halsin after that and ask if he's okay is the same as "demanding he go through therapy for us" to some folks.
That one line isn't the best or most sensitively phrased, but it is HARDLY unique in that respect; there are many moments where your responses to delicate situations are awfully callous instead, even your "nice" ones. (See: immediately after Wyll gets his horns, where your nicest option is "The Blade of Frontiers has some explaining to do." No "oh my gods, are you okay? Are you in pain?") The lines following the nasty option include some wonderful choices (and a few callous ones, as per usual); "It's not for me to say- I wasn't there. But I'm here now, if you wish to talk," for example, which leads to Halsin thanking you and explaining that he hasn't had anyone to confide in for a very long time. Also, the offputting "you may need to reflect on that" option isn't the only way to get to the following lines; a Seldarine Drow, for example, can offer empathy by telling him he threaded the needle by surviving Lolth's pitiless followers at all. Sometimes, a writer's abstraction of situations like these can be really hard, and sometimes writers for dialogue trees fail to anticipate the responses players will want to give. (I.E. not foreseeing that players might want to sound less judgmental to Halsin's recovery, or that players' first concern will be with Wyll's wellbeing in the aftermath of him growing horns, not anger at his "dishonesty".) I would like alternatives to those callous responses, sure, but I don't think they imply bad intentions. Occam's razor and all that.
The truth is that we will never conclusively know what the intentions were behind the original version of that scene. However, in following with Occam's Razor, the simplest explanation is the best one, and it is almost always simpler to assume good intentions than to assume malice. With the care this game showed to rape, slavery, and other issues in the rest of the game, I find it much easier to believe that there was just bad conveyance of Halsin's past than I do that it was intended as a meanspirited joke against sexual assault survivors. Even if it was intended as a meanspirited joke, quite a lot of people had already found comfort in Halsin's character. There is no un-ringing the bell, so the best alternative was to improve the writing to address fan concerns.
Truthfully, any decision made could be argued to be prioritizing one group of fans over the other; if they had kept the status quo, they would have been prioritizing the group of fans who liked Halsin's downplaying of his trauma. Ultimately, Larian has shown that they enjoy making changes to the game over time (sometimes over the objections of fans, I.E. Gortash's letter); if they truly felt the true vision of their story was the original version and they felt it important to stick with it, they would have had no problem ignoring those fan complaints. Hell, one of THE most common complaints about Halsin is regarding his polyamory (especially from Early Access fans on the forums, who are quite vocal about feeling betrayed that Halsin isn't monogamous), and Larian has kept him poly because it is how they intended him to be. Larian didn't change Halsin's post-Drow scene solely because of fan outcry- they changed it because they wanted to. They have no problem keeping unpopular characterization beats and scenes in the game. If it were really a matter of "fan outcry = changed scenes" there would be an evil ending epilogue by now too.
Those are just my thoughts on the issue. I am leaving this untagged out of respect for other survivors who may not agree, but please feel free to reblog or comment- as long as discussion stays respectful.
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comradekatara · 2 months
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How do you think the ATLA storyline would change if Yue was the Avatar? (based on the theory that she was meant to be the Avatar if the cycle wasn't thrown off balance by the genocide/aang running away, explaining her birth circumstances)
I've always loved this au idea and was wondering how you think it would play out (yknow, yue being a waterbender, learning the elements and defeating ozai).
okay i mean obviously my immediate thought is “what role do katara and sokka play in this” because i refuse to entertain any AU wherein katara and sokka are not front and center. so i guess i could see kanna encouraging katara to escape to the north after a brush with the fire nation (zuko perhaps? he was in southern waters regardless of whether or not they found aang) leads kanna to realize that they aren’t safe in their village. so katara and sokka go up north (although it’s a lot less comfortable without a bison) and they get there in time for yue’s sixteenth birthday, which is when it’s announced that she is, in fact, the avatar.
katara gets really pissed off that pakku will make an exception to teach yue waterbending but not her, but pakku is just like “well she’s the princess and the avatar. you’re just a southern peasant” and katara goes OFF. at which point pakku realizes that she’s kanna’s granddaughter and is like “oh shit” etc etc. so katara and yue start learning side by side, and katara is like “so when are you going to leave the north pole and fight in the war?” and yue is just like. “the what.”
katara storms into the room she shares with sokka after practice one day and just goes “YUE DOESN’T KNOW ABOUT THE WAR” and sokka, who has been hopelessly pining over her with the knowledge that nothing could ever happen between them is just like “NOW’S MY CHANCE.” so he goes to yue and is like “i know this might sound crazy, but please hear me out,” and then explains, with no detail spared, the geopolitical conflict that has been ravaging the rest of the world for the past century. he somehow conveniently leaves out every personal tragedy he’s experienced, but it’s still incredibly comprehensive all told. and then he’s like “wouldn’t you know all this anyway? by being the avatar and being able to talk to your past lives?”
and yue suddenly realizes that the absurd nightmares she’s been plagued with all her life were actually memories, and she feels so guilty that she somehow never realized it sooner. so she goes to her father and tells him that as the avatar, is her duty to master all the elements and fight the firelord, and arnook is like, well as the princess it is your duty to remain safely in agna qel’a. so after yue feels that she has sufficiently mastered waterbending (and that katara can teach her the rest), she escapes with katara and sokka and they go to the earth kingdom to find an earthbending master (and they somehow manage to find toph). and so on and so forth.
ultimately, while i do think there’s something beautiful about yue reclaiming her power and autonomy, i still don’t think it’s more compelling than the original show, or the significance of aang’s central role. i do in fact firmly maintain that the only remotely compelling alternate avatar AUs are sokka, azula, mai, or ty lee. yue’s complicated tragedy is more compelling to me than yue being an empowered girlboss (sideyes natla). but it is kind of fun to think about. if nothing else, katara and yue being classmates is cute.
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ANNOUNCEMENT — SEVENTEEN World
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✧ The second chapter — Melon Pang! (Coming soon!!)
— CEO au, optional SMUT [18+], fluff, angst, slow-burn, strangers to lovers; word count: 10k+ (but based on the storyline probably closer to 20-30k lol)
💼 Part of the SEVENTEEN World Series ღ I advise you to read the prologue and Wonwoo's chapter first :) ✎ Really couldn't wait to share this teaser with you all!!!! But please note that it may take a while for me to publish the actual chapter since I still have a lot to write and I really want it to be perfect :') But I will (hopefully) publish some smaller projects while you wait for the chapter ^^
Barista!reader x Managing CEO Choi Seungcheol ~ The last thing Seungcheol expected was to argue with a random stranger in a bakery after an awfully stressful day. But how could he not when this person was about to take the last melon pan? You were in a similar position. Your boss had been nagging you non-stop at work and all you wanted was your favorite snack, followed by a movie marathon on the couch. Instead, you find yourself having to deal with this stubborn guy who thinks the whole world is his.
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“Excuse me?” You turned around at the sound of a male voice, assuming that he was talking to you since the bakery was pretty much empty at this hour.
“Can I help you?” you asked wearily, raising your eyebrows at the blond man that had approached you – the mask he was wearing covered most of his face, so it was hard to get a read on him. And seeing as you’d gone through your fair share of uncomfortable encounters with strangers, it was only natural for you to have your guard up.
To your surprise, he pointed towards the hand that was holding the snack you were planning on buying. “Would you mind giving me that melon pan? I really need it tonight,” he spoke.
Your weary expression slowly morphed into a confused one as you raised the sweet bread slightly. “This...melon pan?” you asked, wondering where this was going.
The stranger nodded. “Yes, that one. I just got off from work and I’ve had a pretty rough day, so I need it. It’s my favorite snack and I’m not planning to leave the store without it.”
You almost wanted to laugh at the audacity of this guy. As if you would hand it over just because he supposedly ‘needed’ it. It wasn’t your problem that you'd been faster.
“Well, it happens to be my favorite snack too and I’ve also had a pretty rough day, so no. I’m not giving it to you.”
“Oh, come on. What’s it going to take? Name your price,” he motioned before reaching into his pocket to pull out what you assumed was his wallet. What the hell was he doing?
“I just told you, I’m not giving you this melon pan,” you responded firmly – your free hand automatically squeezed into a fist as you tried to keep your blood pressure under control. Getting into an argument with some random stranger was not part of the relaxing evening you’d planned.
“And I said, name your price. Everyone has one. How much do you want for it? Fifty thousand won? A hundred thousand? More? Just tell me. Money is not an issue here,” he shrugged nonchalantly, his wallet now wide open for you to see.
His outrageous proposition left you in a state of awe. The disgust was no doubt evident on your face, but he didn’t seem to care one bit.
“Are you seriously trying to bribe me for a fucking melon pan?!”
Judging by the way he was dressed, you were pretty certain that the guy was loaded – the combination of the dark brown suit and black coat he was wearing probably cost more than what you earned in a whole month.
Still, that didn’t give him the right to treat others like garbage.
“Do I look like I’m joking?” He didn’t. “You have something that I want. You’re not giving it to me, so I’m offering you an alternative that will make both of us happy,” he stated, completely oblivious to the fact that he was coming off as an entitled asshole.
“You are so unbelievably rude,” you scoffed. “I’ve never met anyone as ignorant and entitled as you. Just wow. If that’s how you treat people in your life, then you probably don’t have many friends.”
It was clear that your words had struck a nerve when the shameless stranger narrowed his eyes in response. “I’m rude? I think you are pretty rude to someone who’s just trying to reason with you. Trust me, if you had any idea who I was, you wouldn’t be speaking to me like that.”
Oh look, he’s a narcissist too...surprising.
“Listen, mister whatever-your-name-is. I’m going to say this one time. I don’t give two shits about who you are and I’m not giving you my melon pan, so you can keep your damn money. Now, I’m going to walk away, pay for my snack and leave so that this,” you motioned between the two of you, “doesn’t escalate into something worse. Have a good life,” was the last thing you said before rushing towards the checkout.
Your blood was boiling by the time you left the store. The whole encounter with the rude stranger had put another damper on your mood, leaving you with a bitter taste in your mouth. Because just who the fuck did he think he was? And what kind of weirdo would try to bribe someone for a melon pan?
You truly hoped to never see him again.
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☀ if you want to be added to the tag list, leave a comment or send me an ask, but be sure to mention that it's for the SEVENTEEN World Series!  ✎ Make sure to enable the MATURE community label if you want to read the SMUT!!!!
☀ Tag list: @multiplums​ @hipsdofangirl​ @brrrkdslek @sonybear40​ @omyeol​ @matchahyuck​ @bumblebreanna​ @haneulparadx @queentoriasworld @letsimagineyouandme @jadesniall @kimingyuslover @lockburn-castle @celestialkmg @shinetogether17 @i-dont-give-a-fok @minhui896 @miraes-world @bmkgemz @6969lilithcat @hopefulchick @yoonguurt @fantasies-of-a-bookworm @xiaoting999 @yearnoclock @mingyucookies @itswaffleberry @strxbrymilkkuu @kwonhoeshi @honeywonuu @hoshi-is-ult-bbg @nomnom2001
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viasblogs · 4 months
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Plead - Ellie Williams
picture by strangerdais on pinterest!
- Summary: you and Abby were childhood friends until she betrayed you, holding you back as one of her friends murdered your brother. You and Ellie spend your days tracking her down for sweet revenge.
Send requests!! masterlist !!
“I always wondered why I struggled to be vulnerable. I could never decide between the silence of my mother or the rage of father.”
- Warnings: the story may not follow the storyline, oops Sensitive subjects, death, torture, Abby’s an ass, knife play, guns, murder, revenge, name calling, strong language, tw: owen, intense fights, skull cracking, 1.5k words, not proof read (will be done eventually)
“Oh hey- Abby? Is everything okay?” You pondered. She had stormed into the room, a cruel expression pinned onto her once soft features. Your eyebrows furrowed as you let her drag you by the arm out of the room.
She didn’t make any sound, not even breaths, as she dragged you to a house. It was old, weeds and plants growing out of every crevice. Not one window was fully intact, and inside the walls were painted with blood.
You mouth fell open at the scene in front of you. Your brother was chained to a pipe in the corner of the room, red dripping down his face and nose as it looked at his lips.
“What happened? What’s going on?” You said hurriedly. As you tried to run over to him, Abby pulled you back by your shirt. You clawed to get her hands off you, and when you looked up at her face you could see the rage behind her skin.
A man walked in, blonde with a beard, and a pipe dusted with blood in his scratched hand. Tears welled in your eyes as you tried your best to run forward.
“Abby, what the fuck? Let me go!” You screamed, trying to push her hand away. As the man creeped closer to your unconscious brother you sucked a mouthful of air in.
“No, no, no!” You screamed, the man’s pipe connecting repeatedly with your brothers head, chest and neck. You turned to Abby once again, your eyes glazed with disappointed and fear. Her eyes seemed empty, almost as if she was locked in a trance.
Once your brothers chest had stopped pulsating, Abby still wouldn’t let you free. You were held to watch as the mystery man smugly left the room, his greedy eyes fixated on the blond behind you.
“What the fuck has gotten into you?” You sobbed as you turned around the girl you once called your best friend, “you’re fucking evil, Abby.”
Suddenly, it was two years later. The memory still haunted you daily. You felt it didn’t matter how far you tried to outrun it, your brothers face followed you everywhere.
It was as if he lived behind your eyelids, you saw him every time they closed. You could still feel the same amount of rage you did while living it.
So that being said, during late September, you gathered all of your guns and knives. You collected necessities and put on your coat ready for the freezing winter nights.
The sky was black, freckles of silver blinking down at you. As you stared up at them, you wondered if it were actually possible to touch them. Your legs dragged you through Jackson, house lights all switched off.
“Where are you going?” A familiar voice asked you. You turned around on your heels, looking in the direction of the voice.
“Ellie, go back inside.” you said out loud. You knew if you told her your plan she’d make you stay, but you couldn’t. Your head was longing for nasty revenge. You tried to keep walked, but she ran out and stopped you with a hand on your shoulder.
“Hey, you don’t have to be the villain, you know?” She spoke. You felt she knew what you were up to, and was surprised. She knew about what happened, and she knew Abby killed Joel.
She continued, “but I do. So let’s go.”
She started walking in the direction you were going, but you stood still. If in a different circumstance, you would’ve laughed at her words.
“Ellie, you’re not coming with me.” You sternly mumbled to her, “you have a family, Ellie. A child!”
Ellie stayed quiet, as if assessing all of her options in her head. Eventually she nodded, turning around and walking back into her house. You were upset by the lack of goodbye, but continued forwards anyway.
You stood at the edge of Jackson, overlooking all of the houses from a hill. The sun was rising but still hidden behind mountains. You had to be completely gone by sunrise, so if someone tried to find you they couldn’t.
You set out for Seattle, where you father lived (last time you checked.) He belonged to the Washington Liberal Front, and you a sneaky suspicion that’s where Abby would be.
As you walked you daydreamed about smashing her head against a wall, then thought that probably wasn’t healthy. So, you switched the daydreaming about strangling her instead.
You felt as thought you were walking for days, though it was probably only about 1 pm. You were now in the town over from Jackson, the wooden building creating an eery vibe.
However, you didn’t have time to be afraid, and you used your need for revenge to stroll through. That was until you heard the yells of angry men.
You hid behind an old car, the windows all smashed in. Their guns shit at the metal, and you were suddenly rather nervous. Yet, you knew you couldn’t die now. You had started this, it was your job to finish it.
You pulled your pistol from your jeans, poking up from the hood of the car, shooting one of them between the eyes. Fighting had always been your strength, you weren’t good at being stealthy.
As a guy ran full speed behind you, you grabbed a rusted pipe from the ground and swung. The hit made him stumbled, so you grabbed him by the shirt and swung him into the car, then using your hand to crack his skull.
You panted as you looked around, eyes scanning desperately for anymore people. You spotted a man behind the car opposite yours and pulled out your revolver, holding it ready.
When he popped his head up, you shot. It hit him in the shoulder though didn’t kill him completely. You ran over, shooting him two more times to be sure. When you were sure that was all of them, you started a run.
You entered an old shop, the shelves bare. A man walked in through the door, the bell above him ringing. He was talking to himself, telling you to come out and fight him as you hid behind the counter.
You grabbed your knife, waiting for him to round the corner. You noticed he wasn’t carrying a gun like the other, just an old wooden baseball bat. As his shoe popped into frame you stabbed his ankle, him swinging his bat at you.
You held your cheek as you ran, the man closely behind you on a dodgy ankle. As you ran out of the store, you pulled out your revolver again, turning around to shoot him. You caught him once in the leg and once in the stomach.
That was enough for him to fall, so you kept running. You spotted a horse tied to someone house and whispered an apology had you grabbed the reins and hopped on, leading the horse out of town.
When you were fat enough away, you stopped the horse, trying his leashes to a tree branch. He was cute, a black horse with a white patch behind his ear. You scavenged through your backpack, finding a cloth and wiping away at the blood dripping down your face.
“Well,” you sighed, “that was fun.”
The horses ears perked up, as if he was listening to you.
“We need to get you a name.” You stated to yourself as you climbed back on him. Then you wondered if maybe he already had one. You started guessing names, trying to see if he would answer to any of them.
“Ugh, this is impossible!” You groaned, the horse casually walking along the trail of the woods, “I bet it’s some stupid shit, like screwdriver.”
The horse turned its neck slightly to look at you, and for a second you thought you got it right. When your tried again, he ignored you.
Maybe it’s something similar You thought.
“Nail? No, okay. Let’s try… Bolt! Fuck okay.” You listed a bunch of tools, “Hammer?”
When the horse stopped and turned to completely look at you, you laughed. Who come up with the name hammer?
“Okay then, Hammer it is.” You chuckled as the horse Hammer started his walk again. You slowly ventured further into the forest, the sky above you blocked by a blanket of dying leaves.
You stopped Hammer down by a river, finding a place to set up camp for the night. You decided that was your best option as you didn’t want to tire Hammer out before you could get close to Seattle.
You tied his reins to a tree branch, curious as to if he’d run off if you didn’t. You sat on a log, your head in your hands before you set up the your sleep arrangements.
You didn’t like the idea of being in a tent, so you settled for just a sleeping back. With a “humph!”, Hammer laid down next to you, almost shielding you with his large body.
You stroked his stomach before drifting off into an uncomfortable sleep.
You woke up to the sound of gun shots and clicker, which had became a lullaby for you. You sat up faster than the speed of light and reached for your shotgun, lifting it up.
You looked across the river bank, a herd of clickers twitching their way across the river. A gunshot snapped you into reality and you pointed your gun at the culprit.
“Ellie?”
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antianakin · 8 months
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I don’t know if you’re actually watching the Ahsoka series or not, but I was very curious on your thoughts on the newest episode, and the confrontation between Anakin and Ahsoka.
Bro traumatized her again. Lol. 😒🙃
I’m actually kind of satisfied that she showed a little resentment, but I still don’t like that she didn’t cuss him out or something.
Anakin not apologizing is infuriating at first glance, but I also think it fits his character.
It’s funny, if I think about it in a certain way: I wonder if Anakin himself views his “redemption” kind of the same way his fans do. He’s just like, “Why are you still pissed at me? I died stopping the Emperor, didn’t I?” 🙄
The only one I think he’d actually feel sad about is Leia, because of course he’d want his daughter to like him, but she never will now, because he fucking tortured her and blew up her planet.
You know… I don’t really view Anakin’s final moments as a true “redemption” in the eyes of the galaxy. George Lucas has a quote where he says parents are redeemed in the eyes of their children. I guess you could argue that Anakin redeemed himself in Luke’s eyes, but not the galaxy’s own.
And then there’s Leia, who will never forgive him or think of him as her father.
In a way, it’s almost fitting for Anakin, that each of his children represent something for him.
Luke represents forgiveness, and how it’s never too late to do the right thing.
Leia represents his mistakes and sins. As long as she lives, he’ll always look at her and remember the damage he’s done. She’d never let him forget it.
Which is funny, when going back to the recent Ahsoka episode, and how he was acting like a dick to Ahsoka.
Personally, I think he was purposely trying to piss her off to make her fight to not die.
Still though: he’s such a jackass. 😒
Anyways, I guess my main point is that I don’t view Anakin being a Force Ghost shows that he was “redeemed.” I view it more as a type of salvation. Like the Bible story where Jesus is on the cross with two other men next to him. And then one man decides to “believe in him” or whatever, and his soul is saved by the skin of his teeth.
This is kind of how I view Anakin’s act of saving Luke. His soul was saved, because he did a heel face turn at the last second. So The Force was like, “Good enough, I guess.” *Throws up hands*
Anyways, sorry for the long rambling. I hope you don’t mind the message. Haha. 😅 I just have found your blog really therapeutic, because while I like Anakin as the fascinating character that he is, it still just kills me how fandom woobifies him and blames the Jedi for their own genocide.
I don't mind this message at all, thanks so much for sending so many of your thoughts, this was great! It's going to be a long reply back, though, since there's so much to respond to and if you've been going through my blog, this probably won't surprise you.
I AM watching the Ahsoka show, I'm just putting my thoughts about it on a different blog to this one (this blog was created for me to be negative so I usually only review things on here if I KNOW I'm going to be negative about it, but I was hopeful I'd have positive things to say about the Ahsoka show lol).
I think I'm feeling RELATIVELY mediocre about the show. Like I don't hate the whole thing, I can see why it appeals to people, but it's not really hitting at what I would've wanted from a narrative perspective. It seems to be relying on fan service and pretty visuals rather than genuinely good writing to get them through. If you happen to be the fan being serviced, you probably like it fine. But if you are someone more like me, then you might be noticing that there aren't a lot of stakes, the character motivations are weak or missing, the two storylines aren't being spliced together very well, and the dialogue's just not that great. There's also several more nitpicky things that are really pissing me off about the show (the way they're treating Force sensitivity, Sabine being a Jedi at all for no good reason and how her character is being butchered, the very distant and aloof acting I feel like we're getting from everybody, and of course the requisite anti-Jedi bullshit that we can all expect from Filoni at this point).
But as for how I felt about Anakin and Ahsoka's scenes in the latest episode this week, I am personally of the opinion that it WASN'T Anakin at all. I know it's left ambiguous, so if people feel like it was truly Anakin in some way shape or form, that's fine, but I think it makes more sense to me personally that it wasn't. This is Ahsoka's manifestation of Anakin in a moment where she's literally drowning and emotionally at something of a low point and has to decide if she's going to live or not and that conflict plays out in her head the way we see it. I'm also open to the idea that this is one of those things where the Force "tests" the Jedi not unlike what we see happen on Ilum and Mortis and the Force is just utilizing Anakin's visage to bring Ahsoka's deepest fears out into the open.
What makes it interesting to me is that then we can look at the interactions as THIS IS HOW AHSOKA SEES HIM. Whether she thinks about it that deeply or not, THIS personality is how she remembers him. The immediate choice to be violent with her and test her fighting skills rather than talk to her more gently, the dismissive attitude he has towards her, the flickering back and forth between Anakin and Vader because she doesn't truly know which one he was most. He wasn't necessarily a great teacher and his way of teaching wasn't very Jedi-like, it's ruthless and merciless and unkind, and we see that reflected in their interactions in this episode, which could be a really interesting look at how Ahsoka still remembers him even if she didn't see it negatively at the time.
So him not apologizing isn't like... an indication of how Anakin might actually handle this interaction if it were truly him so much as just... Ahsoka being unsure sure if he WOULD apologize because she has no idea how much of him was Vader the entire time and Vader would clearly never apologize. I think the Anakin we see by the end of ROTJ probably would apologize at SOME point, especially if we're supposed to see him as redeemed and acknowledging/accepting of his sins, etc. But Ahsoka doesn't know that. Ahsoka probably kind-of knows through Luke that he turned back in his last moments, but she wasn't there for that, she didn't get to see it, and she obviously still has no idea what caused him to turn on the Jedi and become a Sith to begin with. Why did he come back for Luke and not her? Was it because she abandoned him? Did he just not care about her the way she thought? Was there something intrinsically wrong with her that he recognized from the beginning?
There's just too much uncertainty perhaps for Ahsoka to know if he'd actually apologize and she doesn't even necessarily need or want an apology so much as she just wants to UNDERSTAND. Because of course it leads into her doubts about HERSELF and whether being his apprentice (even for as short of a time as it was) has somehow influenced her to be more like him and if she should be worried that she'll go dark or cause a student of hers to go dark. If she doesn't know why HE made that choice, how can she trust herself? It's not entirely dissimilar to the statement she made at the end of the Wrong Jedi arc where she claims she's leaving the Jedi because if the Council couldn't trust her then she isn't sure she can trust herself, either. And now with Anakin going dark, she has to wonder if the Council saw something of that in her when no one else did, saw a future for her that she hadn't been able to see for herself yet.
I think personally I'd just rather look at this episode as the closest we're going to get to a "deep dive" into Ahsoka's psyche and character rather than try to analyze it as like "what does this say about Anakin." It's not Anakin's story anymore, it's Ahsoka's. Or it's supposed to be, anyway.
That all being said, I don't think it went far enough and I do dislike that we didn't get to dive into OTHER aspects of Ahsoka via other relationships in order to round out who she actually is. I don't think we know any more about her at the end of the episode than we did at the beginning. I don't think she really grows or changes through the episode at all. I don't know what the whole "choose to live" thing was about or how it connects to her overall arc because while, yes, she's obviously literally drowning in the moment, "choosing to live" is not something they've been exploring as an issue for Ahsoka throughout this season so far, so it didn't feel like this cool end to her character journey so much as just a really shallow one-liner made to sound badass without anything particularly profound behind it.
I think gffa said that one of the things you can tell about this show is that it's been percolating in Filoni's mind for so long that there's things he's leaving out because they're just totally obvious to him now and he's forgotten that the audience won't know some of it without being told or shown. If Ahsoka was depressed or suicidal or something like that, it never came across in the first four episodes. She barely seems to be struggling at all to me, personally. So maybe that's what Filoni wanted us to understand about her, maybe that was the intention, but it just didn't quite make it from his head into the writing or onto the screen.
And I keep going back to the Obi-Wan Kenobi show and the way they handled his character arc. They started him at a really low point where he's so CLEARLY depressed and just moving through life without actually living or finding any way to be happy. They spend so much time showing us how OUT of character Obi-Wan is in order for the pay off by the end and the slow growth of his character throughout the six episode story to feel satisfying. And while he's out of character in his depression, it's done in such a way that that's the POINT. We all know WHY he's out of character, we know what's causing him to be that way, it doesn't need to be explained because it didn't happen off-screen, it's literally the plot of an entire trilogy of films. It felt like a pretty natural extension of the state we last saw him in and it allows him the ability to actually have a journey that makes sense.
We've gotten NONE OF THAT for Ahsoka. Her relationship with Sabine is nonsensical and comes out of nowhere with zero explanation. Her weird thing about Padawans comes out of nowhere with zero explanation. Her aloof attitude is coming out of nowhere and does nothing to help us understand the state of mind she's in. She never seems to be acting SO out of character that it tells the audience how much she's struggling, but she's also SO flat that she no longer feels much like the Ahsoka everyone knew and loved from The Clone Wars. They're inventing new problems for her to have that make no sense instead of giving her a journey to actually deal with the problems she already had and hadn't gotten any resolution for. And they're unable to actually connect her problems from before into the Rebels storyline in a way that makes any real sense or feels genuine and meaningful for either Ahsoka or Sabine, so both storylines are getting half-assed and butchered in the attempt.
Personally, I think Ahsoka should've had a season set closer to ROTJ or even before it, just after she gets off of Malachor and 2-3 years prior to ANH, to explore her immediate reaction to Anakin's betrayal and have her overcome that on her own. Use original characters primarily, throw in Bail Organa or something if needed just to give her a quick plot, but let it be about AHSOKA. And only once her journey to finding herself is complete do we then move on to the Search for Ezra, which should be focusing WAY more on the Rebels characters than we're actually getting and should not involve any of the Rebels characters (except maybe Jacen) learning to be Jedi. Ahsoka would be a side character in this story because she has now had her story told and we can let Sabine and Ezra and Jacen and Hera be at the forefront of the story. (I also think we could've done something with Sabine that wasn't being a Jedi or her entire family being murdered off screen so she has an excuse to do a characterization 180 and act like a bratty teenager all over again.)
If I had to just change THIS episode a little, I have a few alternatives I've been thinking about. For one, I do just think we should've gotten to explore OTHER relationships beyond Anakin to emphasize the other things that Ahsoka is that aren't just "Anakin's Padawan." Rex, Barriss, Plo Koon, even Kanan or Ezra to try to make that connection to Rebels. She's been a friend, a commander, a rebel, a student, a mentor, an ally, a Jedi. She's been so many things that have nothing at all to do with Anakin and I think that might've been nice to explore as well. Yes, Anakin was important. Yes, she's fucked up about it. But that's not ALL THAT SHE IS. So I think starting off with her fears about Anakin is great, but then have her move on and sort-of go through it a little like Charles Dickens' A Christmas Story to show that she's more than this, too. This probably would've worked better if it had been a two parter thing rather than one 30-40 minute episode, depending on how many characters you wanted to throw in.
I also would've appreciated seeing her break and shatter at seeing Anakin. I wanted her to be ANGRY, to refuse to forgive him, to throw his betrayal in face. And then by the end of the episode, she lets it go. She's seen that she doesn't need to hold onto that anymore and it doesn't matter what choices Anakin did or didn't make, she's her own person and can make HER own choices. And so Anakin comes back at the end, and she's no longer angry. She can forgive him. I also would've wanted her to have been more snappy and frustrated and angry earlier in the season, as well, so we can TELL there's something simmering underneath that she's trying to keep repressed until it finally boils over in this episode.
The other alternative I came up with was the OPPOSITE idea where Ahsoka is basically just kind-of... in denial about it. She isn't acknowledging her own anger and pain and betrayal at all and she just wants to spend this time with Anakin the way they used to and Anakin is sitting there provoking her and trying to get her to break so she can let it all out. Eventually he gets her to admit it and get angry and yell at him and acknowledge her own pain finally so she can see how it's impacting her relationships in the present day. She's been trying up until now, but as Yoda's always said, sometimes trying isn't enough, and you just have to do or do not. She doesn't reject him at the end of this, but she can at least acknowledge what he did to her and how it's made her feel. You could even include some of her anti-Jedi bullshit in this and have her justifying Anakin's betrayal by saying the Jedi failed him the way they failed her and Anakin pushing back on that idea so that by the end of the episode, she can recognize that she's been blaming the Jedi because she's been uncomfortable with her inability to understand Anakin's choices and it was easier to blame the Jedi than live with that uncertainty.
I've discussed my feelings on Anakin's redemption a lot and they're definitely not in the majority. Personally, I just don't think he's redeemed at all. My definition of redemption is along the lines of "you can fix/undo the thing you broke/damaged" rather than just... "you decided to stop breaking things even if there's no way to fix it." It doesn't mean Anakin can't keep being a better person if he'd lived, or that he can't find redemption in more specific places (like Luke forgiving him for chopping off his hand), but that there is no redemption for what he did to the Jedi, to the clones, and to the galaxy at large. None. It doesn't matter what he does, it doesn't matter that he stopped himself and Palpatine, it doesn't MATTER. The Jedi and the Republic are still gone, the clones were still enslaved, the galaxy is still in shambles and traumatized from 25 years under the Empire.
You aren't the only one who's chosen to separate your definition of "redemption" from something else to make it make more sense. Someone else went for redemption being different from an absolution wherein you are just immediately forgiven of all of your sins because of one act or whatever, while redemption is the process of doing better. If that works for you, go for it. Personally, I just think Anakin isn't redeemed. He cheat coded his way into being a Ghost and the Ghosts don't make any sense anyway. I think it's definitely intended to represent his redemption IN THE NARRATIVE, like that's the point of the visual, but it just doesn't work for me, so I choose not to see it that way. It's ambiguous enough and the Force Ghost lore confusing enough that it's not that hard.
Your interpretation of Luke and Leia as the two sides of forgiveness is intriguing. I do think Leia could get to the point of forgiveness that basically looks like letting go of her anger because the man's dead anyway so there's no real point staying angry and understanding the history that may have led him to become the monster she knew, but that doesn't mean she has to LIKE him or ever consider him a father.
I think you could kind-of throw Ahsoka and Obi-Wan in there as different reactions to Anakin, too. With Ahsoka as someone who sort-of clings to who Anakin used to be and can't truly reconcile the two versions of him that she knew, and Obi-Wan as someone who rises above. Unlike Leia, he did know and love Anakin, but he is also able to let go of his anger and betrayal and accept Anakin for what he is now rather than pining for someone who no longer exists. And Ahsoka is the opposite of Luke as someone who also knew Anakin and loved him, but struggles a lot MORE with the revelation of who he was and his impact on her life. Everyone approaches Anakin and his relationship to them and his choices in a different way.
I wish the Ahsoka show wanted to explore any of that at all lol.
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